High pressure water systems are commonly used in mobile cleaning machines for cleaning indoor surfaces such as floors and outdoor surfaces such as streets and parking lots. The high pressure water is applied to the surface to loosen and remove dirt and grit from the surface being cleaned. The dispensed water also serves to trap and maintain lightweight particles such as dust on the surface being cleaned to facilitate its removal by the cleaning machine. The water is discharged through minute orifices located in a nozzle to vaporize the water and form a water mist. The small orifices are easily clogged by minute particles of dirt and virtually any other type of foreign matter within the water reservoir which reduces the reliability and effectiveness of this is approach. In addition, the presence of various other contaminants in the water, such as algae, can also easily clog nozzle apertures preventing the discharge of the water. This approach also uses large quantities of water to cover the entire surface being cleaned, requiring frequent water replenishment, and affords only limited water dispersal over the surface being cleaned.
The present invention addresses the aforementioned limitations of the prior art by providing a wet dust suppression floor cleaning system which produces large quantities of very small water droplets which are adapted for contact with and attachment to atmospheric dust for directing the dust particles onto the surface being cleaned, where the dust particles remain until swept or vacuumed up.